Sunday, 14 April 2013

Ruins, rope bridges, and wind


 Dunluce Castle

The Rope Bridge. Monique holding on for dear life. 


Clockwise from top left: The Mussenden Temple; Daniel standing in a four hundred year old fireplace at Dunluce Castle; The Downhill Demesne 

The Causeway Coastal route really was a sensational place to spend a long weekend. Being in the Irish countryside really is good for the soul…getting stuck behind tractors is par for the course, and real men wear gumboots (as opposed to London, where they’re now the height of fashion for gents as they go for a weekend stroll through boutique shops).

Some other highlights included…

> Braving a rope bridge that connected a small island with the mainland in howling wind. It was genuinely nerve racking as the narrow, flimsy bridge swayed wildly from side to side in the howling gale. We did our best not to look down to the jagged rocks and pounding waves below. Monique didn’t cope so well, having inherited several generations worth of acrophobia.   

> Seeing the ruined Dunluce Castle perched precariously on a rocky outcrop. It made for quite a spectacular scene. It was fun to imagine Northern Ireland’s elite living in what would have been an incredibly opulent castle.

> The Mussenden Temple – a small circular building perched on a cliff  was built by a Bishop to be his personal library. We were surprised that the Bishop's home - the Downhill Demesne - had deteriorated so quickly, having only been abandoned in the 1940s.

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